Financial and Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations, Fourth Edition

Chapter 6 The Governing Body: Trustees and Directors

This chapter concludes Part One. Previous chapters dealt with the fundamental requirements for organizing and operating nonprofits of various types within the constraints of law. This chapter turns to the responsibility for overseeing the operation and assuring conformance with law.

Both federal and state laws require that the nonprofit organization assign this responsibility to a governing body variously named trustees, directors, elders and so on. The principal role of the governing body is to represent the organization’s public, to assure conformity with the mission as a contract promise, to provide for the efficient and ethical operation of the organization, to assure conformance with the ...